Sensex, Nifty continue to trade in green; Metal, Auto, PSU lead

Indian equities trimmed gains but continued their firm trade in green in the late morning session. On the global front, the majority of Asian markets were trading in green on better corporate earnings report from US that boosted the outlook for the economy. The Japanese market has surged by over a percent ahead of the Bank of Japan’s two-day policy meeting starting today. Traders were seen piling up position in Metal, Auto and PSU sector, while selling was witnessed in Realty, TECk and CG sector. In the scrip specific development, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories gained on launching Montelukast Sodium tablets and Chewable tablets. V-Guard Industries surged on reporting 67% in its net profit at Rs 20.65 crore for the quarter, as compared to Rs 12.34 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. PGCIL jumped on receiving nod for two investment proposals worth Rs 154.07 crore. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5300 and 17600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1210:889 while 112 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17626.04 up by 24.26 points or 0.14% after touching a high of 17679.37 and a low of 17605.62. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.30%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Metal up by 1.39%, Auto up by 0.75%, PSU up by 0.43%, Power up by 0.35% and IT up by 0.24% were the gainers while Realty down by 0.75%, TECk down by 0.28%, CG down by 0.20% and Bankex down by 0.11% were the losers on the index.

Hindalco Industries up by 2.48%, Jindal Steel up by 2.36%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.49%, NTPC up by 1.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.28% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Bharti Airtel down by 3.37%, Gail India down by 2.01%, TCS down by 1.04%, ONGC down by 0.51% and L&T down by 0.50% were the major losers on the index.

Mean while , the government has decided to seek approval from Supreme Court (SC) to extend the deadline for auction of second-generation spectrum from August 31 to November 12, 2012 and assigning of frequencies of spectrum to successful bidders by January 30, 2013.

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by finance minister P Chidambaram, had decided to extend the date to November due to difficulties in completing the auction process in stipulated time. Pursuant to which, the government may ask the SC time till November to begin the auction. However, the SC had earlier ordered that the auction of the spectrum must be completed by August 31.

As per the new schedule, the new licence structure will be finalized by October 1, 2012, and submission of application will start on October 2. And the list of applicants will be finalized on November 6 and mock auction will be held on November 8.  

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,341.00, up by 4.30 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 5,361.40 and 5,338.70. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.27%, Jindal Steel up by 2.15%, BPCL up by 1.57%, Hindustan Unilever by 1.45% and Sterlite Industries up by 1.39%. While, Bharti Airtel down by 3.32%, Gail down by 2.56%, ONGC down by 1.22%, TCS down by 1.13% and IDFC by 0.99% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in green; Kospi Composite Index up 0.91%, Nikkei 225 up 0.69%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.15%, KLSE Composite up by 0.30% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.22% while Hang Seng index down  by 0.27%, Straits Times down by 0.41% , and Shanghai Composite down by 0.10%, were the losers on index.